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Nation | 
 enlarge | Author: Terry Pratchett
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: £16.99
Buy Used: £5.47
You Save: £11.52 (68%)
New (32) Used (22) from £5.47
Rating:  50 reviews
Sales Rank: 42
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 300
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.5
ISBN: 0385613709
EAN: 9780385613705
ASIN: 0385613709
Publication Date: September 11, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 The Usual Pratchett Brilliance September 9, 2008
Mr. Michael Heron
52 out of 54 found this review helpful
So, first things first - this is not a Discworld book, which marks it as somewhat of a departure from the norm. Secondly, it's wonderful, made all the more wonderful by its separation from the usual Narrative Elements of a Terry Pratchett novel.
I received the book today and read it in a single sitting - bits of the book are tremendously sad, other bits are tremendously bitter - I do wonder how much of the book is a metaphor for TP's own deeply sad condition. There aren't many laughs in the book, but there is a very touching, emotionally resonant story that at its core is greatly optimistic.
I do hope that this isn't the last book we'll see from Terry Pratchett, who as an author has given me a greater Enjoyment to Hour ratio than any other writer. If this is to be his swan song though, he's carried it off marvellously.
Jaw-dropping September 10, 2008
ds (Whitby, UK)
24 out of 25 found this review helpful
One of the funny things about Terry Pratchett is how easy it is to take him for granted. It's probably a truism to say that he hasn't really written a bad book. It could be levelled at him, however, that during middle-period Discworld books like Jingo, he was running on autopilot to some degree. All that changed around the period of The Truth and Thief of Time, where suddenly he seemed to find another gear again, which has given us wonderful Discworld novels such as Night Watch and the sublime Going Postal, not to mention Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegle.
Nation is a product of this later, and ongoing, period, but it is something of a departure. It isn't even a Discworld novel at all. Instead, it appears to take place in our own world, or some parallel version of it, with a distinctly mid-Victorian feel. It all starts with The Wave and how it is seen from the viewpoint of both Mau and Ermin...sorry, Daphne (don't worry, it gets explained later). Mau is the sole survivor of the Nation, returning from the exile that begins initiation into manhood to find his whole society has been wiped out by The Wave. At the same time, the ship in which Daphne is travelling, the Sweet Judy, is wrecked upon the same island.
Apart from just trying to stay alive in the first place, Mau also seems to have to contend with the voices of The Grandfathers calling out to him, not to mention ordering him around. Survival isn't easy, from finding something to start a fire to worrying about the predations of the Raiders. And then there's the Ghost Girl, who wears trousers and carries the portable roof. How do you keep The Nation alive from there? Against the odds, Mau, the Ghost Girl and others who begin to arrive seem to start making a good fist of it. But there are still enormous obstacles in the way...
Nation is a book overflowing with ideas and, in the end, is one of a more humanist inclination. That is not to say that it is not a spiritual book: quite the opposite in fact. Spirituality is talked about an awful lot, as is the need to be curious and ask questions. Indeed, along the way, the reader gets a more than adequate (and cunningly insinuated) grounding in the workings of the scientific method. There is also no cliched happy ending, just a real one, with a rather nice epilogue; it's nice not to have a cop-out.
For me the standout part of the book is its beginning, and the aftermath of The Wave. Rarely has Pratchett written so powerfully, or indeed so bleakly. There is real emotional force and sadness in his description of Mau's return to his village home. This leads into another of the book's wider themes: the change from childhood to adulthood, from innocence to knowledge. In this respect Nation reminded me a great deal of Philip Pullman's his Dark Materials (particularly The Amber Spyglass ). Indeed, like HDM, I would say that Nation isn't a "children's" book at all, just a book that children would enjoy reading.
As one would expect from TP, none of this is done in a pompous or po-faced way. He rather has the habit of sidling these big ideas into this books under the cover of gags. And after all this time, it's fairly safe to say he hasn't lost his touch. I'd go as far as to say that, especially because of its beginning, this may even be the finest thing he has written (and this, remember, is the author who was responsible, with Neil Gaiman, for the wondrous Good Omens). Given his track record that is saying something, but I think it may be true.
Unreservedly recommended.
A Classic in the truest sense October 2, 2008
Christopher Kibbey (UK)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I want to add my review here of Nation but it's actually an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. The reason is that I don't want to appear to be `gushing' with praise for it. If ever I read such a review, it normally has the effect of turning me off the book completely, as it's obviously written by a fan who hasn't read a different author or genre since they left primary school. In view of this, here's what I genuinely thought of it:
I finished the book last night and my immediate thought was `Oh my gosh, this is a classic'. This is a book that will be discussed, debated and written about for years to come. It's a bit like being around when a new Dickens or Jane Austin novel came out.
The plot has been mentioned here already, so I won't repeat it again. I see that some reviewers have said that Nation is pitched at older children in their teens, but don't be fooled. This book has so much depth and can be read at so many levels, there's enough here to keep 10 year old Harry Potter fans to Academic Philosophers happy. The writing style is as clear and sparkling as cut crystal and while reading it, Pratchett takes your conscious mind out of this world and into his. You become each character, looking through their eyes, thinking their thoughts and feeling their every emotion. It is a fully immersive experience. The book also engages the brain by making you think about how societies and belief systems are created and our place in them. It is also a book to make you think about what makes you, you. If ever there was a book that could provide software upgrade for your brain, this is it.
Terry, I'll probably never meet you in person, but thank you for such a special gift.
Different but definitely worth it September 7, 2008
Cheeky Author (Birmingham, UK)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
This latest offering from Terry Pratchett is not a discworld novel, instead it is a standalone story set on what would be a South Pacific island were it not set in a parallel universe.
Still, even in such a place, the customs and practices of the trousermen will be familiar, as will the tentative romance, the power of loss and the need of the human species to stop, every so often, and ask why.
Mau is an unlikely hero, but inspires both heart breaking sorrow and pride in his strength of character. Daphne is, as many of Pratchett's heroines, courageous, slightly sarcastic and steadfast in her uncertainty.
This book is darker than previous novels, Pratchett sometimes spears through the heart with the simplest of lines, and tragedy is a necessary undercurrent throughout the tale. At the end of the book, the author invites you to think, although surely by this point, the thinking has already begun.
A different, but rewarding novel. Probably not a good initiation into Pratchett's world, but a must for those who appreciate the subtleties of his fantastic writing skills.
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